The Chase
by Woes Of A Post-Grad
Summary: Freshman year of High School is complicated enough, but when Kevin starts to develop feelings for Double D navigating through school becomes infinitely harder. [ KevEdd ]
1. Chapter 1

_Oh dear, oh dear_

Double D sat tugging at the hem of his sleeve nervously while awaiting the arrival of his two friends. The high school gym became more and more flooded with bodies excitedly chattering about this and that. The Freshman entry ceremony was about to begin, and as per usual the other Eds were tardy, leaving Double D alone in a sea of strangers.

The plan had originally been to walk to the school together, but Double D's unanswered texts led him to believe the other two had overslept. He walked alone to the school for fear of being late.

After nervously shifting his weight from left to right a few times, Double D decided to make his way through the crowd in order to see if he had just missed the arrival of Ed and Eddy. As he walked, he took in the vastness of the high school gym. It was much larger and certainly much more modern than the middle school gym he had grown accustomed to.

 _The ceiling is so elevated..._ Double D thought. _The construction alone must have tak-_

"Oops! Sorry, Double dork. I didn't see you there."

Double D sat on the floor after having walked into his childhood bully.

"Ah! Greetings, Kevin. No apologies necessary. The fault was entirely my own."

His light build had stood no chance against Kevin's athletic form, and he had simply fallen backwards making very little sound upon impact. Double D had become quite used to falling as he often walked into things when he was distracted with his thoughts.

Kevin held out a hand for Edd and effortlessly hoisted him up to his feet.

"So, where are the other dweebs today?" Kevin asked, giving the gym a quick scan. "Don't think I've ever seen you without the other Eds before."

"I'm quite certain that is not true." Double D laughed, though he knew Kevin was just overexaggerating. "Unsurprisingly, but still much to my dismay, they are running late. I am glad to find a familiar face among the crowd though." Edd smiled, motioning towards Kevin.

Edd's relationship with Kevin since their childhood had mellowed out, but still remained slightly distant. Kevin had abandoned his bullying phase somewhere along the line, and on occasion had even spoken out against the harassment that Edd would receive from others. Double D could not justify using the label of "friend", but Kevin was someone he now looked upon quite fondly. Though, he could not assess whether the feeling was mutual.

Kevin returned Edd's smile before turning his attention to the center of the gym where the principal was struggling with the microphone. A loud high-pitched wave of feedback from the speakers sent many of the chattering Freshmens' hands to their ears. Double D covered his mouth with his hand to avoid looking rude for giggling at the principal's battle with the sound system. A slight nudge from Kevin earned a few more chuckles from the pair before a commanding "Ehem…" echoed through the gym's speakers.

"Welcome, Peach Creek High Freshmen-"

Kevin leaned in towards Double D's ear while keeping his head facing forward. "Bet you a quarter I could nail the principal with a spitball from here."

Double D shivered a bit from the feeling of Kevin's breath on his neck.

"Shh.." Double D lightly hissed at Kevin, afraid of attracting attention to himself.

"Dork." Kevin chuckled before standing upright again.

…

 _Yawn._ Kevin stretched his arms above his head as the principal delivered some closing statements. He stole a quick glance at Double D who was standing with his hands clasped in front of his chest, an engaged look on his face.

Kevin laughed to himself as he lowered his arms back down.

Over the past couple years Kevin had begun to notice Double D more. He had seen the way others were treating him, tormenting him for being smart or for being around the other Eds when they pulled scams. Despite all of it Double D was always so happy. Soon after noticing Edd, Kevin began to feel protective of him when other kids would give him trouble. Before he knew what he was doing he started stepping in to protect Double D from the bullying. At some point the feelings of protection started to develop further, but Kevin suppressed them since he knew the others wouldn't be okay with… whatever it was that was causing him to feel this way. Throughout middle school Kevin just continued to occasionally defend Edd and hope that was enough to rid his head of anything else concerning the dork, though it wasn't always successful. More recently, he found himself thinking about Double D quite often.

Broken and unenthusiastic applause brought Kevin from his thoughts where he realized that the ceremony had ended.

"Well, I suppose I should be on my way" Double D chirped. "I always make a point to get to class a bit early, as should you, Kevin."

"Yeah yeah." Kevin scratched the back of his head. "So listen, Edd-"

Just then the two missing Eds came barreling into their friend, landing Double D on the ground for the second time that day.

"Double D! We thought you had been eaten by flesh sucking zombies!" shouted Ed, hands frantically waving above his head.

"Yeah, what's the deal, Sockhead? I thought we were coming here together."

"Hey, Double Dweeb," Kevin said, one hand still on the back of his neck. "I'm going to head off. Maybe we'll see eachother around." Kevin smiled.

"I would like that very much," Edd looked up to Kevin from the floor.

Kevin turned to walk away.

Eddy scoffed at Kevin before returning attention back to his friend on the floor. "What're you doing hanging with Shovelchin?" He offered a hand to Edd.

Edd declined and picked himself up before smiling and shrugging off the question.

Double D fixed his beanie and motioned towards the gym exit "Gentlemen, shall we?"

"Yeah, whatever." Eddy scoffed as they all began walking together.


	2. Chapter 2

Only three weeks into his freshman year Edd found himself being drug into the men's bathroom for what must have been the third or fourth time. Large hands had grasped onto his collar as he unsuspectingly walked down the hall. Though he was surprised, the shock wore off quickly as he had become accustomed to his high school beatings already.

A week or so earlier the shortest of the Eds had decided to play a prank on the football team by leaving a stink bomb in the men's locker room while they were at practice. One of the players had seen Eddy slink into the bathroom beforehand, and it wasn't long until the entire team descended upon him and his innocent comrades. Double D, though completely undeserving of the punishment settled into his familiar state of being bullied. _Guilty by association_ , he thought dryly as he was pushed against the side of a toilet stall.

The pressure the large jock placed on Double D's chest made it hard to breath. He wriggled a bit under the harsh grasp, but couldn't move much as his feet had been lifted off the floor.

"Your little friend just earned you a good amount of hurt" scoffed the jock. "It's best not to get on the bad side of the football team, especially when it's a weakling like you, freshman." He spit out the last word as if it tasted bad in his mouth.

Edd at this point had shut his eyes tightly, his arms pulled in front of his face. He hoped the jock would focus the blows on his torso as the damage was easier to hide.

"Look at me when I talk to you, pussy!" The jock slammed Edd's head against the side of the stall. Edd saw stars, but kept his arms up, looking at the jock through a space in his forearms. Edd held his breath with the hopes that it would stop him from trembling.

Just then the sound of a creak alerted the two that they were no longer alone in the bathroom.

"What's going on in here?" came a raspy low voice from outside the stall.

The jock shook Double D a little, signaling for him to answer the question.

In a meek voice Edd squeaked, "It is just I in here. Everything is fine."

"Edd?" asked the raspy voice

The unlocked stall door crept open as a concerned Kevin peered in, first looking at the jock's face and then to Edd's.

Kevin straightened up, but the boy holding Edd still stood almost a head taller than him.

"H-hey man, I know this guy's friend is a dick, but this kid probably had nothing to do with the stink bomb. Could you just do me a favor and let him be?" Kevin stumbled over his words.

The jock looked at Kevin and gave out an annoyed chuckle, "Whatever, man" he said, placing the thinner boy on his feet, "but if you're trying to get on the team's good side and play on varsity, you may not want to be associated with losers that try and fuck with us."

"Noted." Kevin said sarcastically once the jock was through the doors and out of earshot.

"Thank you, Kevin." Kevin spun his head back around to meet the eyes of Edd who was leaning against the stall wall rubbing the back of his head. The way Edd was looking up at Kevin made his stomach tighten. "Your teammate took me by surprise. I am gracious that you were able to intervene before damage was done.

"Looks like you're not totally damage free, dude." Kevin stated, cocking his head towards the wall. A small amount of blood dripped down from where Edd's head had impacted. Edd looked at the hand that he had been rubbing his head with, and sure enough there was a decent amount of blood coating his fingers.

Edd sighed and picked up his belongings that had scattered along the tile floor, the movement made him feel slightly dizzy.

"Thank you again, Kevin. I will be on my way to the nurse's office now."

"Wait, I'll come with you." Kevin followed Edd out of the bathroom.

"That is kind, but extremely unnecessary, Kevin. I wouldn't want you to miss more of your lecture than you already have for my sake."

"No worries. I have no problem skipping class, plus I want to make sure your dome is going to be okay." Kevin smiled as he placed his hand on Edd's head.

Double D smiled at the touch, feeling warmed by the gesture.

Kevin sat next to the nurse's table on his phone while Double D had his head bandaged. The thinner boy kept his beloved beanie on until the last second when the nurse kindly asked him to remove it. Kevin couldn't help but steal a curious glance at Double D as he removed the hat. Long black locks reaching just above Edd's shoulders fell out of the beanie in a messy slept-in sort of style. Edd felt slightly disheveled having been separated from his security blanket, but Kevin's heart jumped at the sight of the dark haired boy.

Edd looked up at Kevin after remembering that he was still sat in the room only to grab eye contact for a moment before Kevin quickly glanced down back to his phone, cheeks slightly flushed.

 _Had he been watching me?_ Edd questioned before smiling and looking back down at his hands crossed in his lap.

 _Shit, he caught me staring._ Kevin's face felt hot.

Later that night, Kevin sat in his bed feeling slightly restless. He thumbed through Facebook on his phone passively. He had yet to accept any growing feeling for Edd, but the desire to be closer to the kid gnawed at his stomach. The feeling was particularly strong tonight, but instead of his stomach he started to feel it pool in his groin. _Fuck_. Kevin groaned as he stuffed his face into his pillow. He had found his way onto Edd's profile and began debating whether or not to shoot him a message. If he started up an actual friendship with Edd would that satiate the desire to be closer to him that had begun to grow recently, or would that just cause them to grow more? Kevin typed out a quick message, his thumb hesitating for a second above the send button. With a sharp inhale Kevin pressed the send key and tossed his phone to the edge of the bed.

Edd looked up from a textbook to his phone when it buzzed before looking at the time. _10:45? I wonder who this could be at this hour._ He was surprised to see a facebook message from Kevin lighting up his phone, and had to calm himself slightly before opening the message.

Kevin: hey double dork. hows the noggin feeling?

Edd smiled at the sentiment and quickly typed out a reply.

The sound of his phone buzzing made Kevin's stomach knot up. He reached over to his phone and quickly opened the message.

Edd: Evening, Kevin. My "noggin" as you have put it is doing quite well! I appreciate your concern, and I am very fortunate to have someone like you looking out for me.

Kevin chuckled aloud, "Fucking dork." He fell back onto his bed as he thought about today. How his messy hair fell in front of his face. The smile he saw Edd make after he had caught Kevin looking at him in the nurse's office. How submissive Edd appeared when he was looking up at Kevin in the bathroom stall. Kevin's groin began to tense again, and he placed his hand on his lower stomach with a slight groan. _Fuck._


End file.
